Developing Specifications for Performance-Based Maintenance Contracts (SWUTC/08/167161-1)

Performance-based maintenance contracts are becoming increasingly popular method of procuring maintenance work. This study presents a framework for specifying such contracts. This framework is based on developing a pavement reliability model that is able to account for the effects of rehabilitation actions. The developed reliability model is able to predict the pavement performance before as well as after rehabilitation actions. Numerical illustration for optimization model shows that the developed model can be used to obtain an optimal trade-off between cost and performance. Further, the model considers a tradeoff between economies of scale associated with managing longer pavement sections, and risk mitigation benefits with managing relatively smaller e.g. more homogeneous sections. The results indicate that the length of optimal management sections depends not only on risk premium costs, but also the ability of the contractor to explore economies of scale. The model is illustrated using typical data available to transportation agencies.